Man Committed To Whiting For 35 Years In Wake Of Fatal, Wrong-Way Crash

HARTFORD — A Willimantic man who drove the wrong way on Route 2 during a 2012 suicide attempt, killing a 68-year-old and severely injuring his wife, was committed Thursday to a locked psychiatric institution for 35 years.

Judge Joan Alexander committed Lingxin Wu, 24, during a Superior Court hearing punctuated by sniffles and tears. He was acquitted by reason of insanity of manslaughter, reckless driving, first-degree assault and other charges after a one-day trial by judge July 17.

Wu will be at the Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown, the hospital's highest-security setting. He could be committed for a longer period of time, depending on what the Psychiatric Security Review Board decides, the judge said.

Richard Sullivan, 68, of Shelton died in the crash. His wife, Barbara, and other family members tearfully talked about him during the afternoon hearing to illustrate the weight of their loss.

"Society should not have to tolerate the type of loss that happened on April 28, 2012," Alexander said.

According to the warrant, the crash happened about 4:15 p.m., when Wu was driving east in the westbound lanes of Route 2 in Marlborough, near the Glastonbury line. Witnesses told police it looked like the sports utility vehicle he was driving was intentionally speeding into oncoming cars, as if the driver was "playing chicken."

Then Richard Sullivan rounded a slight curve in the road. The white Nissan Rouge SUV suddenly appeared and came at his Subaru Impreza at an angle, Barbara Sullivan later told police. The impact sent the Suburu into a spin; Richard Sullivan died at the scene.

When Wu got to the hospital, he kept asking the hospital staff if they could kill him or help him kill himself. He did not cooperate with the investigation, state police said, and when he wrote a statement, he started writing in English and then switched to his native Chinese. The translated version made no sense, with sentences such as "You help, you self, Just go away! … I want to be a normal person, you still continued to me you stop playing, go ask your president!"

In court Thursday, Wu's public defender, Robert Meredith, said Wu's father had noticed weeks before the crash that his son's "brain was in chaos" and took him to a psychiatrist in New York. The doctor said Wu suffered from confusion, grandiosity and persecutory illusions, Meredith said, and prescribed him medication.

"He took one dose, but he was sleepy so he never took it again."

The Sullivan family told the court the price they paid for that. They lost a husband and brother with a great sense of humor who adored his grandchildren. After he retired from his job as a customer service manager at Warner Bros., he took a part-time job at the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, helping small children get on the carousel, they said.

"He always had a humorous story or a joke," said his sister, Patricia Sullivan Snyder. They played a DVD that showed him holding his grandchildren, getting married, or flashing his trademark smile.

Barbara Sullivan said she cared for Richard when he had heart surgery, and he cared for her when she battled cancer. They had just celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary two weeks before the crash.

For months after his death, she cried herself to sleep at night, only to wake up and cry again in the morning, she said. Barbara Sullivan then stood up and turned to face Wu, who looked back at her while a translator relayed her words.

"You were the one who wanted to die. You are still here and Richard is dead. … I need you to feel remorseful." Sullivan said she wants a "sincere and public admission of guilt."

She got what she wanted. When it was time to make his statement, Wu turned around to face the gallery where Sullivan sat with four other family members and friends. Sullivan leaned forward.